Is Valve Software Working on a Home Gaming Console?

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Rumors began flying over this past weekend that Valve Software may be working on a home gaming console of their very own. Valve is, of course, the studio behind Half-Life, Counter-Strike, DOTA 2 and the massively popular digital delivery service, Steam.

Rumors are that this console, nicknamed the 'Steam Box', will be announced either at Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week or possibly at E3 later this year. The information that's floating around so far suggests that the console will be powered by Steam but will apparently be able to play PC games via services like Origin as well. Contrary to how Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft operate business, publishers wouldn't have to pay Valve for a license to make games for the 'Steam Box'. The console is said to support configurable controllers as well as some sensors, including a bracelet that would read biometric data including bloodflow and stress to alter the in-game experience.

Specifications-wise, the 'Steam Box' is said to house an NVIDIA Graphics Processing Unit, 8GB of RAM and a Core i7 CPU from Intel.

Naturally, with talks of a Valve gaming console, the question arises: has Valve been waiting to drop the Half-Life 2: Episode 3 bombshell for this momentous occasion? Only time will tell but we're hoping it's sooner than later.